Sea Level Rise and Climate Change Demo
Provided by: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative|Published on: April 27, 2021|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Type: Lesson Plans
Subjects: Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This lesson plan provides a podcast, student worksheet, and two hands-on experiments that demonstrate how melting land ice and the thermal expansion of water contribute to sea level rise.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The educator's guide is detailed and well-organized.
- Students will enjoy participating in the experiments.
Additional Prerequisites
- The downloadable "student pages" in the educator's guide include a number of questions, but the pages do not leave space for students to record their answers.
- The experiments require some materials to be gathered ahead of time, such as ice cubes, containers, straws, and water bottles with lids.
Differentiation
- Before beginning the experiments, have students hypothesize what they think will happen. Advanced students can incorporate this into scientific method lessons and write a scientific paper describing their research.
- After this lesson, social studies and geography classes could learn more about how and why certain coastal areas of the United States are experiencing faster sea level rise than other parts of the world.
- History classes could research how and why port officials were measuring the sea level long before scientists began to record data using GPS.
- Other resources on this topic include this PBS video on how Miami is dealing with sea level rise, this NASA video about how global warming is causing sea levels to rise, and this sea level rise viewer that provides sea level rise data for the coastal United States.
The resource explains how sea level is measured and the importance of collecting data on sea level rise to plan and respond to sea level rise when it occurs. This concept of disaster risk reduction is valid and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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